coverage

Hugh Jenkins woke up to the news of the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks on New York City on his radio alarm. Although he was in Australia, he followed the news on American cable networks where the coverage was 24/7.

Jim Whitcomb and his son were waiting to fly to Europe at JFK airport in New York City when a mass panic began, presumably in response to a terror attack. It eventually became clear that there were no attackers, but it took security services hours to resolve the confusion. He disputes the media coverage that claims the security services were in control, such as this account.

Photographer Brian Harris remembers that it wasn’t clear the Berlin Wall would fall and that it took many by surprise. Luckily he was in East Berlin when the moment came, and he describes his long night covering the story as it unfolded.

In the 1970s Brian Harris worked in the heart of London’s Fleet Street, freelancing for The Sun, The Times, News of the World, the BBC and United Press International, covering everything from IRA bombings to celebrity news, until joining The Times as its youngest ever staff photographer aged twenty-five. When The Independent launched in 1986, Brian became its first staff photographer, playing a key role in forming the renowned Indy style of intelligent editorial photography. In his fourteen years at The Independent Brian travelled the world to cover the stories that defined the era.

Since going freelance in 1999, Brian has staged several solo exhibitions, notably at Photofusion Photography Centre, and has contributed to exhibitions organised by the British Press Photographers’ Association. In 2006-7 he collaborated with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Remembered, a major illustrated book of his photographs and series of international touring exhibitions chronicling the CWGC’s work caring for the graves of over 1.7 million Commonwealth war dead.

The BBC has made three short documentaries about his working methods and he has debated live on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze: ‘An experience more terrifying than walking through a minefield on the Falkland Islands.’

In the spring of 2016 Brian’s book ‘…and then the Prime Minister hit me…’ a 320 page hard back book of images and essays covering his life’s work. The book is currently being printed and bound in England and will be available from mid-late April 2016.

Brian Harris describes why foreign correspondents loved working with photographers: because their story was sure to get better placement in the paper. He also talks about how Stephen Glover, the first foreign editor of The Independent, invested heavily in foreign correspondents and let Harris and other staff photographer John Voos divide the world into coverage areas.

In the 1970s Brian Harris worked in the heart of London’s Fleet Street, freelancing for The Sun, The Times, News of the World, the BBC and United Press International, covering everything from IRA bombings to celebrity news, until joining The Times as its youngest ever staff photographer aged twenty-five. When The Independent launched in 1986, Brian became its first staff photographer, playing a key role in forming the renowned Indy style of intelligent editorial photography. In his fourteen years at The Independent Brian travelled the world to cover the stories that defined the era.

Since going freelance in 1999, Brian has staged several solo exhibitions, notably at Photofusion Photography Centre, and has contributed to exhibitions organised by the British Press Photographers’ Association. In 2006-7 he collaborated with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Remembered, a major illustrated book of his photographs and series of international touring exhibitions chronicling the CWGC’s work caring for the graves of over 1.7 million Commonwealth war dead.

The BBC has made three short documentaries about his working methods and he has debated live on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze: ‘An experience more terrifying than walking through a minefield on the Falkland Islands.’

In the spring of 2016 Brian’s book ‘…and then the Prime Minister hit me…’ a 320 page hard back book of images and essays covering his life’s work. The book is currently being printed and bound in England and will be available from mid-late April 2016.

Terry Kirby talks about The Independent’s bold visual style, from Brian Harris’ ‘up the nostril shots’ of politicians to “random country scenes.” The Independent pioneered, Kirby says, a radical rethinking of the front page, often covering it with a single image as in the famous picture of the Clapham Junction rail crash in 1988.